As a DM, I try not to question my players' choices. But when a player tells another player to not "waste a cantrip slot on Prestidigitation" I had to step in and tell him to shut his mouth.
Minor Illusion is probably the most misused spell in the game. It has very explicit limitations that are often ignored when people talk about the cool stuff they can do with it. "I make it sound like a dragon is coming down the hallway!" "Okay, the sound of a dragon's roar happens 30 feet down the hallway. The guards turn to look and see nothing." "I create the illusion of a dragon to frighten my enemies!" "Okay, a small, immobile, silent statue of a dragon, hunched into a 5 foot cube appears within 30 feet of you. The guards are startled by it's sudden appearance, but quickly brush it off when they realize that it is obviously a statue." Granted, there are some cool things you can do with it. Make a 5 foot boulder to hide in. Make a
@@theodorehunter4765 I have more: - Make a 5 by 5 hedge to hide behind in a more forested setting or a fake door for doorways - Make a small, fake construct to rouse suspicion - Hide somewhere from someone trying to kill you and make an illusion of yourself hiding somewhere else to throw them off - Make a fake trap to make people think they're in the clear while putting an actual, concealed trap behind the fake trap - Swap a real item with an illusory copy in case you're already in the middle of stealing and would've gotten caught
@cak01vej "so you cannot create an illusion of yourself" Easy workaround, I make a corpse of myself posed in the position I want it in. A corpse counts as an object therefore I can make my own corpse an illusion. Also yeah, the door thing wasn't meant to be foolproof, it also doesn't block light.
@cak01vej I am most certainly an object, so are you. Definition of object: A specific, individual, material entity. The image won't move or react or think etc. It would just be a 3d image of what I'd look like if I were, say, crouching behind something. Under any inspection it would be obvious it was an illusion, but by that time it has done its job.
@cak01vej A body/corpse would fit under the definition of a discrete inanimate item that is not composed of other objects. You could create an image of your body. It doesn't need to be an image of your body with your soul inside it (aka a creature).
My favorite unethical use for prestidigitation we actually did? We needed some information from cultists, so after we captured them and tied them up, we shuffled them around one at a time from room to room and used prestidigitation to mimic the sound of people being tortured in the rooms in between. We convinced them that their friends were being tortured for information and that they were next, so they pretty quickly gave up and told us everything they knew to avoid being next in the "torture" room.
The Warlock wanted to, but the sorcerer adamantly refused because it would "tarnish the purity" of his divine ancestors' gifts. This was also really early in the campaign, and he was still a naive, spoiled brat.
I had a Wizard with a focus in illusion, who could make enemies experience torture, without actually touching them. All illusions. but they were horrific. Prestidigitation played a good role in a lot of his workings.
If you want the 102, soil something's eyes to blind them or their mouth to shut them up or other things 103 soil something's brain, to kill them and leave not a single trace after you use it again to clean it or just give them mental issues
@@jouneymanwizard some aren't even feasible, like turn a silver coin gold to fool a merchant - they're very different shapes, probably for that exact reason, in a world where magic is a thing and prestidigitation is a novice practice spell
DMs are sick of Spellcasters. DM wont even give me advantage on intimidation when i use thaumaturgy to make my fkn eyes blood red, make the earth beneath my feet quake, and light my horns (tiefling) on fire. Honestly, i shouldnt even need to roll. It was a kobold.
Here's another one that I used often. First, you teach your allies what a bunch of customized symbols refer to, like an arrow pointing at a circle meaning to surround the target, or a jagged arrow meaning to go around. Then, you use prestidigitation to form the symbol on a rock and pass it around for another way to give basic orders without a sound. Great for sneaking groups with darkvision.
@@missingdev0948 Correct! Opens up another cantrip slot. Though you would be sacrificing flexibility to add a bit of flavor going this way over message.
My Bard kept using this on our cleric whenever he tried to impress someone. Nothing takes the wind out of your sails like when the noble your talking to asks why your hair is pink.
Sir why is your hair pink? My char: *looks at a hair folicle* "Oh, I dabble with potions making frequently, and sometimes there's side effects when you make a small mistake. It's more of a hobby, really." Turns it from a weird thing into an impressive bit, where someone who's already good at wordplay and swordfighting and magic is also spreading their bredth further and learning alchemy. Not even a lie, because he *does* have alchemy and herbalism prof!
@@FacebookAunt By that logic you could say that it only affects one thread of a piece of fabric or one fiber of wood. A DM could certainly rule that way, but I'd guess that DM wouldn't have many people playing in their games for very long.
Absolutely amazing! You should do similar for minor illusion. My personal favourite minor illusion is to create an illusory crate around myself or an image of the unchanged landscape on a window and move past unnoticed.
@@faselfasel2864 unfortunately minor illusion cannot create moving images, so it would have to be a static picture. For moving images you'd need Silent Image at least... 😅
I've had enemies in distant rooms with our melee PCs close doors to prevent us from shooting into the room. I've also used Thaumaturgy to reopen these doors. 😁
@@AZDfox If I was the DM, I would just say roll for Sleight of Hand for Somatics and Stealth for Vocal to see if you can pull the spell off without anyone noticing.
@@AZDfox in crowded situation or of they're distracted by almost any means these will work, they only wouldn't work if the person was looking at you as you did it, a quick gesture behind your back and the mumblings of a crazy old man won't gather any attention in most places
Can you do one of theses for shape water? My favorite use is to form a knife out of holy water (It will use improvised weapon rules be aware), then fight undead.
I have so many questions about what my DM might allow with shape water. Ice daggers? Still 1d4 but maybe a magic weapon now. If I'm carrying a gallon of water, I should have enough water to shape ice to any weapon except a great club. What about ice arrows? An ice shield. Do I need Tavern Brawler to be proficient with an ice rapier? Can I shape water that has been mixed with poison? Can I make a simple water elemental familiar with the animate option? Could it have a top hat and carry a tiny ice rapier too? How mad will the DM be when I drop 7000 lbs of ice on a shop that insulted me?
@@jacob_is_fineFirst a tip: if you want to do a bunch off ice weapons, I recommend taking the magic initiate feat for druid, and learning create or destroy water, shape water, and another cantrip of your choice (recommend frostbite if you want a water theme) Answers to the best of my ability: It would probably be a magic weapon with holy water, but other wise I would say no. I believe you can use ice arrows and an ice shield with the improvised weapons rule. I do not know if the ice arrows deal less damage. No, you do not need tavern brawler to be proficient in an ice rapier if you are already proficient with a normal rapier, but be warned in only does 1d4 damage, which is why I recommended dagger, which does that much already. Water with Poisson depends on the DM, with my DM he said it will only move the water and the Poisson would stay stationary. The animate does not mean become alive, it just means simple motions, for example you can shape it like a person and have it wave their hand. You can have a top hat and tiny rapier, but they will both melt in one hour. You can drop a 5x5 cube of ice on the shop that insulted you yes, I recommend you cast create water and set it as rain to make ice cubes fall from the sky. Btw, a 5x5x5 foot cube of ice would either do these things: -Improvised damage considering it similar falling rubble would deal 4d10 damage. -Improvised damage considering it being crushed by a wall would deal 10d10 damage. - Trap rules would say that the Ice Cube would have 13 AC and have 4d8 hit points (per damage).
In order to not be an improvised weapon, having a relevant proficiency would be an option - for example, smith's tools, since that's the proficiency normally used for weapon crafting, although an argument could be made for stoneworking tools since ice is a stone, or just for proficiency in the weapon you're making - similar to instrument proficiencies, proficiency in an instrument gives you proficiency to a performance check when playing it, to an investigation check when evaluating the history and value of one, etc.
I managed to get three sharks off my party's tail by making the water further away from us smell like fresh blood, prestidigitation is a goddamn boon and I'll hear nothing less spoken of it
As far as I can tell, you can create "odd odour" - so not specified smell. Actually most of those ideas here are not valid with this cantrip if you reed into this spell deeply xD
@@creative666666555555 this is two months old so sorry for this late reply. If you “read” into it more deeply, you should realize a lot of the effects you can do are vague on purpose. Like soiling an object. In which way is it soiled? Is it just wet, or is it covered in dirt? Same goes for that first point, the key words being “such as”. Its giving examples not strict instructions. In the end, it is up to the DM whether they will allow it or not.
@@OtakuAudioRedux I follow the rules of the game, yeah. But what are you then ? Bad player who doesnt know how their own spells work ? Illiterate ? Player who lies to their DM about how a spell / skill / feat works in order to break the rules ? I mean those are your only 3 options really
Prestidigitation #102 My favorite. I call it the “Devil’s Slingshot” My halfling arcane trickster cast Prestidigitation to create an elastic band attached at each end on each of the party tiefling’s horns. He then used Mage Hand to launch a vial of Paralysis potion at an enemy. It was funny, but our tiefling was not pleased.
'make dung smell and taste like chocolate, drop halfway through first bite'. No, no, no. Drop it halfway through the *second* bite. Watch as they slowly realize that they've legitimately just eaten dung.
In theory it is, but Prestidigitation has verbal and somatic components so you have to say audible magic words and make some sort of gesture to cast the spell. Most of these tricks don't pass muster if you remember that your targets will know you're casting a spell. The work around is the subtle spell metamagic, but that's Sorcerers only.
Prestidigitation on a bard is the most useful thing I've ever used. I like telling actual stories when I'm a bard. So I throw in prestidigitated stuff like "the dragon swooped from the sky and bellowed (a sound of a dragon erupts). He opened his mouth and breathed flame (create a flash followed by faint odor of burnt wood)." Throw in the dancing lights cantrip to sort of do stick figure esque animations, I love pulling fun detailed stories to sort of give the DM a good time too. Plus, maybe discuss with the DM and tell a story including a hint about an upcoming mystery or quest. Your DM might even give you advantage on the performance check due to the extra special effects, if theyre good at their job.
As it takes a full action 6 seconds basically to cast each cantrip it would make your story very unsmooth with delays and obvious casting of a spell sadly mant times during the story.
@@ninnusridhar im not sure allowing a basic cantrip to do so much is about fun, imagine the other players with their cantrips, there is a reason for those limits. If a player cannot play within the limits of his/her spells and have fun thats not the DM's fault. I am all for players having a good time, but not by allowing them to just ignore rules that others cannot, I doubt you would be so forgiving if the fighter of the group at 1st level 'convinced' the DM to allow him an extra attack because he jumped off the right wall, etc. Sure its dramatic but it is beyond the capabilities of that level and such. Players can always gain experience and accomplish amazing things as they level up, but handing things to players because they think it would be cool is not the route. Also how would this work in a group setting, seems like it would take up a great deal of individual time to tell the story like your suggesting, time all spent on the one player, you, not on a group effort. I say try and be cool and stay in the rules without taking up so much indiviudal time, taking it from everyone else at the table.
@@jasonhowell6269Ok. I want you think real careful, is allowing a character to do damage the same as telling a story for fun. You do realise that unimportant social interactions are entirely different from important story events right? And about the hogging the time bit, you would be right, but the other players enjoy it when i can entertain them for 5 minutes. I'm a good story teller, and I know a lot of good stories. The dm enjoys just watching social interactions where he doesn't need to intervention. Not everything in dnd needs to be life or death battle. There is a lot of just fuckin around coz we wanna have fun. A good dm knows where to draw the line
@@ninnusridhar perhaps, but just because players do not complain doesnt mean they are not annoyed when valuable time is used for a single player. Im guessing that your story time isnt the only time you take for yourself, its just the one you mentioned, usually when a player is more than willing to do this in one way they do it in others. As for non-combat related things, yes they are less important but never underestimate the value to other players who may not get those same benifits, my guess is your DM has picked you as some sort of favorite and allows for this and other things. To prevent anyone from seeing you as getting favortism, as good DM just doesnt allow rules to be broken without a serious good 'group reason' not some let's make one player self endulge reason. If you think everyone loves your story time, then try DMing, if they ask you to keep doing that then maybe they actually enjoy your storytime, more than likely they just dont wanna say anything as your clearly 'buddies' with the DM.
I feel like a lot of these step on the toes of minor illusion. I'm sure some DMs would agree and not let some of these work exactly the way described. A lot of really creative ideas though! My arcane trickster really needs this one
In a game I was running, the PCs witnessed a would-be assassin about to ambush an NPC, and I gave each player one turn to do something to stop him. The bard checked her spell descriptions, then looked at me with glee in her eyes and said, "I pee his pants."
Also remember: It takes 1 Action to cast, so 6 seconds. It's range is 10 feet. And it requires Verbal and Somatic components, so your character has to make specific hand gestures and has to say specific things to make the cantrip do its thing.
3:15 I much prefer changing the enemies clothes to white but leave a Comically large brown stain on the back of their pants. Just to rub salt on the wound
Most of the sound-based ones are definitely the wheelhouse of Minor Illusion, not Prestidigitation. But otherwise this is a really nice video to get creative juices flowing!
You could whisper the vocal requirement without needing subtle spell (I think) so only your party members near you may hear you, also if you are casting this in the middle of your party group they can shelter the sounds and hand movements from everyone else in the area.
One of my faves is Using Presti. for subtitles. Other uses I can think of. 'Painting' a mask without having to buy paint. Camo colored clothes. Lighting explosive arrows/molotov cocktails. Coming up with a battle plan on any surface. Quietly marking pressure plates/tripwires/traps. Alter a musical performance with different notes. Swap ale and pee. Make a air puff toss glitter/sand/powder everywhere. Cool clothes for the desert. A literal 'hot' knife though butter. Make utensils? 'sign' a contract for an hour.
Since I have watched this video, I gave prestigiditation to my character in a new campaign and I use it so many times that the DM just considers it a given that I'll use it to make food taste better or clean blood after a battle. I even used it snug out the lights in a small dungeon, those of our group that could see proceeded to massacre the guards there in total darkness. Thanks for all the tips, I always thought it was useless but it is the best control I could have thought of
There are so many really useful things too though. The ability to quench flames at a distance is a huge advantage against foes that don't have darkvision
That clean the poison off a weapon one just sounds so cool. You don't run into a lot of poison weapons but I'd love to whip that one out when an enemy pulls out the purple worm poison
You need a bit of creativity to make it work, but man, when you get creative... I once had players frame a potion seller to get attention off themselves by using one of his enlarge potions and pouring it down his beehive, leaving the vial there. Cue a swift escape from a swarm of angry bees the size of Gnomes or Halflings - i.e. about 2-3 feet long.
I could imagine a wizard tower with a DC20 lock, enchanted against the Knock spell, and the only key being one prestidigitated by the wizard every time he enters or leaves.
A lot of the sneakier ones of these are particularly good with Subtle Spell if you're a sorcerer and your DM is a stickler for components (assuming you're okay burning a sorcery point on a cantrip)
Most of these auditory effects can't be done just with Prestidigitation. The auditory effects for this spell are limited to faint musical notes or like a whisper in someone ear. Minor illusion, another fun cantrip, covers volume ranging from a whisper all the way to a scream or a lions roar. When used together these two make for a lot of mayhem, especially for sneaky characters.
Nope. Nowhere in the description does it say that the sound should be faint. It specifically says "harmless sensory effect", which fits an extremely loud booming noise, since it doesn't harm anyone. The real advantage minor illusion has with regards to Prestidigitation is the duration. Whereas the duration of sounds made by Prestidigitation is instantaneous, the illusions made by minor illusion last up to 1 minute and can be somewhat controlled.
I use I made for a gambler character would be to create whatever face you want on a blank playing card. Just keep the blank card up your sleeve, then play it with whatever suit or number you need at the time.
@@DnDShorts i actually have a recommendation for a vid! For my next DnD character I’m going with an armorer artificer, my dm is letting me homebrew a race so I created a Tiefling half Orc. The only things different than a normal half Orc is that he has resistance to fire damage, and instead of a +1 to con, it’s a +1 to intelligence. The important thing is he still has the savage attack feature when he crits, and the relentless endurance. Here’s where it goes sideways. Being an armorer artificer, you can have any lost limb be replaced by your armor. So he’s a full on four limbed amputee. Me and my dm worked out that his left arm has the thrown property of a range of 10-60 feet. One of his infusions is the returning weapon, so when he throws his fist as an action, it comes back to him instantly. It is also a plus 1 weapon. Guardian Armorers deal 1d8 thunder damage per punch. Nothing to impressive.... yet. With his savage attack he deals an extra of the damage die when he crits. So 3d8 when I crit at lvl3. I should mention faerie fire is an important spell for this build, which artificers get. Next when I get to level 4 I’m taking the fighter initiate feat and going with the barehanded fighting style adding an additional d8 damage dice per strike. This now allows me to add not only my intelligence modifier and proficiency bonus to my punches attack and damage rolls, but my strength modifier as well. So that’s 5d8 for a crit plus a lot with proficiency bonus, int and str mods, and the plus 1 weapon for fist. Then comes level 5s extra attack, and if I drop faerie fire and double crit, that’s 10d8 plus all those other things. Now what my dm isn’t allowing me to do is take 2 levels of monk for levels 6-7 so I could get flurry of blows, but if he did my damage output at level 7 theoretically could be 20d8 plus all of my other modifiers and bonuses twice a day. I should mention I’m using standard array so my intelligence is a 16 and strength is a 14 (that’s with the +2 strength racial mod added). I can’t do the math off the top of my head.... but that’s a max damage of a lot. And I have absorb elements as a reaction spell so add a few d6s into that as well. So if I get hit with fire damage, I have 3/4ths resistance to that if I use absorb elements. If you can’t tell, I’m a big fan of your work and it helped inspire this crazy build. I hope that maybe this build works it’s way into one of your vids some day, because it’s such a crazy cool thing that you could legally do in dnd 5e that has an insane damage output for level 7 twice per day.
Generally speaking, this is a very creative video that makes me panic about the possibility that my players find it. But also, you put in a redudancy, I will add more if I find some, as I'm not done with the video yet. 3 and 49 are exactly the same. 3 is "Snuff out a light source to sneak." 49 is "Snuff out a light source IN BATTLE to sneak." So yeah, you just did the same thing twice for that one. Ok I'm done. While there were a lot that served the same purpose, like a basic distraction to stop pursuers. None of them used the same method. Thus, they were not redudant. So, aside from the single redundancy I mentioned above, amazing video. Amazingly terrifying that is because it can quickly result in a player centering everything they do around this little cantrip and I either have to find ways to counter it and make it feel less fun for them or have them derail a lot of settings with a cantrip. So your video is awesome, but Prestidigitation is too powerful in my opinion.
Remember that Prestidigitation, like many other spells, has both verbal and somatic components, so anyone nearby can see and hear that a spell is being cast. Many of these ideas fail if a victim suspects a deception. Only a sorcerer with the subtle metamagic option can make use of such ideas, but by draining his limited resource of sorcery points.
Why are you afraid that your players will find this?? I am feeding my players anything that has to do with creative magic and I love when they solve problems using their resources creatively. You don't (honest question!)?
Thanks for the great suggestions! I can't help but notice tho that with a range of only 10ft people will see and hear you casting Prestidigitation, so it will be hard to pull off some of these "sneakily".
@@DnDShorts indeed ahaha but it doesn't take away at all from the really high IQ uses yhat you've been suggesting xp definitely will try a lot of these
@@ajgodinez And even if you don't have meta magic adept for subtle spell you could still ask the DM if you can roll a Sleight of Hand check and/or Stealth check to see if you can pull it off (both checks would cover the V,S parts) ... I am sure just about any DM would allow you to.
A fun use I had was lighting our rogue's arrows on fire, getting some extra fire damage along side the ridiculous amount of sneak damage Another couple uses I had was accompanying melodies for when I - the bard - played songs, keep myself at a specific temperature, even in the frigid cold or the scorching heat as I'm cooling and heating up liquid, the blood in my body, and if needed too... The clothes I wear too
Depends on your own personal location, so say you are right next to the wall of 1 room and the walls are only about 2 feet thick that is still within that 10 feet range.
@@morrigankasa570 No, your personal location doesnt matter. Cause the spell follows the same rules as all other spells (unless very specifically said otherwise) You need to see the spot where you are targeting your spell. And since you cannot see through that wall, you could only cast it on the wall, on your side. Here, directly from the PHB "A Clear Path to the Target To target something, you must have a clear path to it, so it can't be behind total cover. If you place an area of effect at a point that you can't see and an obstruction, such as a wall, is between you and that point, the point of origin comes into being on the near side of that obstruction. "
@@kubomagico8853 I mean.. Yeah it is a joke. That feature does NOT remove the part of spell casting that says " If you place an area of effect at a point that you can't see --> and an obstruction, such as a wall
Once when I was being attacked, it was a wild wolf and I didn't want to kill it so I could train it to be my guard "dog", I asked if I could make glitter to pocket sand the enemy's eyes. She said yes. I then asked if I can make it shoot out instead of just materialize in my hands. She described how every inch of the cart I was in was now covered in glitter. And that was how Spif the War Wizard attained the "cantrip" Glitter Bomb. After that I pulled a Soldier and shoveled it on the head until I knocked it out.
Years ago I created a wizard for a 3.5 Edition campaign. I spent most of my skill points on crafting and profession skills. When we reached 3rd level I took the Craft Wondrous Item feat, spent my saved up adventuring monies to purchase a small storefront, and retired from adventuring to run a business selling items enchanted with Prestidigitation: plates that keep food warm, tankards that keep beverages cold, clothing that cleans itself, lighters, pocket handwarmers, etc. I made a new character, and the wizard became the NPC that funded the party's adventures. Honestly, I'm surprised more spellcasters don't use Prestidigitation and Mending to open laundromats.
One why would the wizard fund a party he is no longer in, and you are not offcially playing now, unless your drunk DM allows you to play 2 characters at the same time. Also what wizard or sorc would stop being an adventurer because he figurered out a way to be comfortable, thats nto what most adventurers do it for, plus no more XP so talk about zero ambition
@@jasonhowell6269 Why the hostility? The way my group plays our games affects you in no way whatsoever. Addressing your points in order: *"why would the wizard fund a party he is no longer in"* Because the party is his friends and companions, and he wants to continue to help them how he can. They also get stuff for him. It's no different to when a nobleman or guild hires adventurers to do stuff for them, except in this case the wizard "hiring" them is also their buddy. *"you are not offcially playing now"* As I said, that character became an NPC and I made a new one, so I was still in the game. *"unless your drunk DM allows you to play 2 characters at the same time"* We actually did play two different campaigns, once with only three players and once with two, where we each controlled two characters to have a full party. It worked just fine. *"what wizard or sorc would stop being an adventurer because he figurered out a way to be comfortable, thats nto what most adventurers do it for"* This wizard was adventuring _specifically_ to get the money and materials to open his shop. Opening his own business _was_ his ambition. *"no more XP"* Going on adventures and killing monsters isn't the only way to get XP., though people who have only played more recent editions can be forgiven for thinking so since the rules only give XP listings for monsters and traps anymore. In older editions there were many ways to get XP; for example, in 2nd Edition AD&D, which my group learned D&D on in the mid-90s, characters got XP for completing adventures and also XP for different things according to their class: Fighters and Paladins got 1XP for each point of damage they dealt, Clerics and Priests got 1XP for each point of damage they healed, Thieves got 1XP per GP value of nonmagical treasure the party found, Wizards got the same but for magical treasure and _also_ for conducting magical research, etc. My wizard may not have been getting Adventurer XP anymore, but operating a business was still providing experience of a different kind.
@@arcticbanana66 one this is an open forum, my reply isnt hostil its to clearly show that you as player are using the DM to gain benefits. Any DM that allows a 'retired' character to continue to fund present characters isnt doing his job. Sorry in any semblance of real life people dont take thier business and fund thier friends hobbies. If you had a real life friend who owned a hobby store it's far more likely they would tell you they are running a business and can't just 'give' you books, and other things because you are their friend, and that its kinda rude to ask for free stuff, not really friends at that point. Most importantly it gives a clear advantage to the players for no reason. The game is set to allow the players to play with one toon for many reasons. Otherwise you see multiple toons doing just this, not acting in their own interests, even good charatcers are mostly acting to gain their own gold and xp, it's great when they can help others but clearly the main goal is self advancement etc, they would not work in a unimind effort to help you the player as roleplaying demands that each character thinks for themselves not for their player. This is 5th edition not the older editions so those options are gone, but even if they were allowed they wouldnt give anywhere near the xp that fighting monsters and adventuring does. I played 2nd edition the majority of my life and those rules helped with some xp but rarely produced anything like adventuring xp, so any character solely releying on those non-adventuring xp would know it's going to come far far slower, it's not a successful way to actively gain xp, so yes they are retiring to make a few gold coins. Also any character that has the intention to quit adventuring to open a shop doesnt have all that much in common with the active adventurers anyways, again certainly wouldnt 'give' them anything. It amazes me that you dont see how your retired toon giving goods or gold to the active players out of the kindness of his/her own heart isnt a cheap way to get free benefits, your DM should see it clearly. If he/she is sending you out for stuff he needs it should be to make profit, not be in your toons interest, just like most shop owners. If your DM wants to let you get along very well with their old companaion thats fine, but it's not yours anymore it is an NPC and should be played as such to prevent cheating, I point this out not to be hostile but to clearly point out to other inexperienced DMs and players this is just weak pandering to players and should be avoided in their games, its clearly too late for your gaming group, where this type of thing is allowed.
I've always found guidance, shape water, and mold earth more useful, and these are some great ideas! Depending on what the dm will let you get away with
Guidance is arguably the best spell in the game, and shape water is a personal favourite cantrip of mine! I was careful never to say Prestidigitation was the most powerful cantrip, because I do believe Guidance is better
@@DnDShorts We definitely get away with some utter nonsense using shape water, such as the time we transported a size huge fish using shape water to keep it alive on a cart
@@DnDShorts Question, Destroy water says you can destroy 10 gallons of water in an open container. People are 70% water. If i cut the top of your head are you now an open container? if so Destroy water will Mess you Up!
One of my favourite uses is making a small bit of clay or wire, putting it in a lock to see the shape of the key, then creating the key to unlock whatever it is that needs to be unlocked
This, plus somebody else concentrating on silent image could make for a scary prank... I asked my dm if my sister and I could make a somewhat realistic dragon with this. He said yes. The barbarian ruined the illusion.
Here's another one for you. Using the soil area feature to put chalk or grit on the barbarian's hands before they enter a weightlifting contest. Love your channel, thanks!
I like the idea of casting the sigil of an enemy house on someone you want to get into trouble with the law, or a demonic thing in a city full of smite-happy Paladins. Some of the uses are so potent it's kinda crazy how there's no resist roll or effective counterplay other than Counterspell or placing another illusion on top of the first.
I used Prestidigitation to blind a boss with this reasoning (which my DM allowed): 1- I can create condiments for non living food 2- I can instantly soil a surface Knowing this i charged with my Warlock towards the boss and pepper-sprayed him in the face, blinding him.
One thing I often do is create thieves tools out of thin air to break out of jail, and if you must know the reason I'm in jail is because the paladin didn't pay for full plate at level 3 on his own though he doesn't need to know where the money came from.
I played a kobold in Pathfinder whose favorite spell was prestidigitation. She was fastidious and constantly used it to clean herself and her companions. She also used it to annoy a barkeeper with the sound of a fly buzzing around his head after he rudely informed her that they didn’t serve fine wine at the tavern.
Problem: Prestidigitation has verbal and somatic components, to do somethimg without others noticing you need subtle spell from sorcerers. Also trinkets disappear within 12 seconds, so weighted dice or fake coins wouldn't last long enough many times.
Flashing tokens, or playing dice games I'd recommend only doing with a trickster rogue who has good slight of hand, deception, stealth, and metamagic silent spell. For example, playing a dice game. Pick up the legit dice, conjure the fake dice and throw 'em. They land so you win the bet, and you pick them up before they fade. If called out, you open your hand to let them inspect the legit dice you originally picked up.
Many of these seem beyond the scope of the spell. Lighting a candle or causing a gust of wind are no where near as complex as CREATING A WORKING COMPASS. The intricacy required is absurd. Look up Minor illusion and Forge Cleric's Channel Divinity. Some of these feel like they are straight up stealing from those 2 abilities. But Prestidigitation is one of those spells that, "It works as long as you can convince your DM to allow it." And since its a spell without hard defined limits, you could argue these pretty easily.
@@Kugrox The thing is you are comparing 2 different effects of Prestidigitation. The working compass does not refer to the "harmless sensory effect" part of the spell like the other two, but to the "create a nonmagical trinket that can fit in your hand and lasts until the end of your next turn". So you can very much create a working compass that disappears in 12 seconds.
I use it to have a cup of tea whenever I so desire. A teacup is a nonmagical trinket that can fit in my hand, and changing the flavor and temperature of the water is well within it's bounds.
If you're an artificier, you can use tools as arcane focuses. Also, prestidigitstion doesn't require material components. If you have your equipment taken away but you want to cast a spell, use prestidigitation to create a small tool to use as a focus. Then you can cast a spell that takes an action or bonus action to cast
We did an adventure where we were put into a chess match in progress on the losing side. Every time we did anything, they accused us of cheating. So when they checkmate us I had one trick left: I Prestidigitationed their black queen white.
those must have been the most incompetent chess judges/oponents, as even if you cast it subtly there is no way anyone who plays chess wouldnt notice it considering the nature of the game.
so in curse of strahd my players got the vistani caravan that I had be the ones to bring them into Berovia, to let them see a map of the local area, they were allowed to see it and the person stepped away to deal with something for a minute, they used prestidigitation to copy a rough draft of the map onto a piece of paper they had with them and handed the map back. This was a trade caravan map so it had a lot more information and some notes on a few areas including location of some Vistani hang outs. I rolled and the Vistani Caravan owner was none the wiser.
I think the ones that are about summoning items (coins, weapons, etc) aren’t feasible through Prestidigitation, but a Conjuration wizard can. Edit: There’s a trinket that says “a gold coin minted in an unknown land”, so a coin that looks like your regular gp is definitely possible.
I am currently building a Citywatch Warforged Artificer (Armorer) named Detective Gizmo. I’m borrowing a handful of these and then some to act as part of his bizzare and niche “gizmos” that he always seems to have built into himself.
I once used prestidigitation to create a cloud of smoke to block the vision of an enemy (only lasted 1 round but still handy, especially if you’re fighting only one opponent). During my very first ever game of DnD. I also used it to change the colour of my crowbar to look purple in order to trick a merchant into buying a purple crowbar (he only sold items that are purple). Then one of my companions were distracting the merchant (unintentionally) so I stole back my crowbar and changed it back to its original colour lol
A Gypsy variant to 74 is to produce a small key as you "pick it up from the floor" and show it to them, asking if it is theirs. Most will then show you exactly where they hide their keys. (I learned this trick from a man who revealed the thieving tricks he learned by those people, and wish to honor the source material.)
No racism there, no, none at all. It's almost like someone has forgotten that people have been exchanging tricks ever since we invented language -- and possibly before.
@@RichWoods23I would like to amend my statement. What I said didn't come from racism, but from anecdotal evidence. I did not grow up understanding that they were from one culture, but a subsection of nomadic people from different cultures like Russia and Scandinavian countries, all who formed a group. In the past year, I did discover about the Roma people (though admittedly it was hard to do so when faced with one sentance insults) but will still leave the term up in my comment as a nod to the one who taught me this trick; a man who was taken and raised by them before escaping.
Chill Touch has the same 120 foot base range. It delivers a couple of fewer points max damage but makes up for it by shutting down the target's healing. It also manifests as a skeletal hand. It can play thumb war with the wizard's Mage Hand -- which has got to be worth more than hit points.
Color me impressed, you actually listed out 101 uses. No hyperbole. It's a lot of different things too: deception, stealth, utility, pranks, inventory replacement. Wow.
Prestidigitation is like if the Wish spell was scaled down to cantrip size.
Headcanon D&D Lore: The guy that made Prestidigitation, is the same guy that made Wish. They're just the evolved froms
@@ihavekalashnikovyoudomath9275 YES
verbal and somatic components make this cantrip less viable, than it's shown in this video. but it's still decent
you can flavor, color, and heat up water to make tea
@@TheDexp bro rewatch the end of the vid he recommended metamagic with it
As a DM, I try not to question my players' choices. But when a player tells another player to not "waste a cantrip slot on Prestidigitation" I had to step in and tell him to shut his mouth.
When I started playing, the very first thing I did was take Prestidigitation for my wizard character.
Lol except prestidigitation can be a dms worse nightmare... I can't count how many times I've stepped around the dms plans using it.
Prestidigitation is an awesome spell. It's so versatile.
@@TAKLProductions If the players can do it, so can the enemies.
Thinks Prestidigitation and Mending should be Automatic for all spells-slingers.
This and minor illusion are invaluable in a creative players hands.
Minor Illusion is probably the most misused spell in the game. It has very explicit limitations that are often ignored when people talk about the cool stuff they can do with it.
"I make it sound like a dragon is coming down the hallway!"
"Okay, the sound of a dragon's roar happens 30 feet down the hallway. The guards turn to look and see nothing."
"I create the illusion of a dragon to frighten my enemies!"
"Okay, a small, immobile, silent statue of a dragon, hunched into a 5 foot cube appears within 30 feet of you. The guards are startled by it's sudden appearance, but quickly brush it off when they realize that it is obviously a statue."
Granted, there are some cool things you can do with it.
Make a 5 foot boulder to hide in.
Make a
@@theodorehunter4765 I have more:
- Make a 5 by 5 hedge to hide behind in a more forested setting or a fake door for doorways
- Make a small, fake construct to rouse suspicion
- Hide somewhere from someone trying to kill you and make an illusion of yourself hiding somewhere else to throw them off
- Make a fake trap to make people think they're in the clear while putting an actual, concealed trap behind the fake trap
- Swap a real item with an illusory copy in case you're already in the middle of stealing and would've gotten caught
@cak01vej "so you cannot create an illusion of yourself"
Easy workaround, I make a corpse of myself posed in the position I want it in. A corpse counts as an object therefore I can make my own corpse an illusion.
Also yeah, the door thing wasn't meant to be foolproof, it also doesn't block light.
@cak01vej I am most certainly an object, so are you.
Definition of object: A specific, individual, material entity.
The image won't move or react or think etc. It would just be a 3d image of what I'd look like if I were, say, crouching behind something.
Under any inspection it would be obvious it was an illusion, but by that time it has done its job.
@cak01vej A body/corpse would fit under the definition of a discrete inanimate item that is not composed of other objects. You could create an image of your body. It doesn't need to be an image of your body with your soul inside it (aka a creature).
My favorite unethical use for prestidigitation we actually did? We needed some information from cultists, so after we captured them and tied them up, we shuffled them around one at a time from room to room and used prestidigitation to mimic the sound of people being tortured in the rooms in between. We convinced them that their friends were being tortured for information and that they were next, so they pretty quickly gave up and told us everything they knew to avoid being next in the "torture" room.
that's actually pretty useful
you couldn't just tortured them fr
The Warlock wanted to, but the sorcerer adamantly refused because it would "tarnish the purity" of his divine ancestors' gifts. This was also really early in the campaign, and he was still a naive, spoiled brat.
I had a Wizard with a focus in illusion, who could make enemies experience torture, without actually touching them. All illusions. but they were horrific. Prestidigitation played a good role in a lot of his workings.
I feel like you are supposed to use minor illusion to make those sounds
I love how the mic is just absorbing his beard.
Plot twist: mic is a mimic
Double Plot twist: It's a mimic embued with his clone spell.
I think that is cat hair not beard hair :P
Plot twist the mic isn't absorbing the beard, the beard is absorbing the mic.
@@MrLeehyde87 THIS at least someone is actually smart here.
He literally gave us 101 uses of a single cantrip. You've given us power. Like the vids!
If you want the 102, soil something's eyes to blind them or their mouth to shut them up or other things
103 soil something's brain, to kill them and leave not a single trace after you use it again to clean it or just give them mental issues
And most were just copies of other spells of higher levels.
Subscribe too
meh, only about 60. Lots of duplicates; at least 10 of them were "make a coin look more valuable then "
Still good list :)
@@jouneymanwizard some aren't even feasible, like turn a silver coin gold to fool a merchant - they're very different shapes, probably for that exact reason, in a world where magic is a thing and prestidigitation is a novice practice spell
"The only limot is your imagination"
And your DMs adjudication.
Ya, the DM is always the buzzkill
"Try imagining a new color"
DMs are sick of Spellcasters. DM wont even give me advantage on intimidation when i use thaumaturgy to make my fkn eyes blood red, make the earth beneath my feet quake, and light my horns (tiefling) on fire. Honestly, i shouldnt even need to roll. It was a kobold.
@@yannismpa3701 your dm especifically (very probably) sucks,find a new one :v
You also can't repair something with presti. That's a function of mending, or tool proficencys.
Here's another one that I used often.
First, you teach your allies what a bunch of customized symbols refer to, like an arrow pointing at a circle meaning to surround the target, or a jagged arrow meaning to go around. Then, you use prestidigitation to form the symbol on a rock and pass it around for another way to give basic orders without a sound. Great for sneaking groups with darkvision.
Message without message
@@missingdev0948 Correct! Opens up another cantrip slot. Though you would be sacrificing flexibility to add a bit of flavor going this way over message.
alternatively; you could just put the corresponding symbol on your back large enough for everyone to see, don't need to pass the message around now.
@@jessecosgriff7610 While yes, that works while together, I decided to go with rocks so I could toss them across distances.
@@Udane You better hope none of your teammates rolls a Nat 1 or there goes your "without a sound" purpose. :p
My Bard kept using this on our cleric whenever he tried to impress someone. Nothing takes the wind out of your sails like when the noble your talking to asks why your hair is pink.
Or when you're trying to Seduce an NPC and suddenly there's the ripping sound of a massive fart . . .
@@JDStone-jg8cg, the literal _"Hey there! (sh*ts aggressively)"_ meme, lol
Sir why is your hair pink?
My char: *looks at a hair folicle* "Oh, I dabble with potions making frequently, and sometimes there's side effects when you make a small mistake. It's more of a hobby, really."
Turns it from a weird thing into an impressive bit, where someone who's already good at wordplay and swordfighting and magic is also spreading their bredth further and learning alchemy.
Not even a lie, because he *does* have alchemy and herbalism prof!
Just one hair though, since it only does one object's surface. :D
@@FacebookAunt By that logic you could say that it only affects one thread of a piece of fabric or one fiber of wood. A DM could certainly rule that way, but I'd guess that DM wouldn't have many people playing in their games for very long.
Absolutely amazing! You should do similar for minor illusion. My personal favourite minor illusion is to create an illusory crate around myself or an image of the unchanged landscape on a window and move past unnoticed.
Or make it seem as if the house is moving xd
@@faselfasel2864 unfortunately minor illusion cannot create moving images, so it would have to be a static picture. For moving images you'd need Silent Image at least... 😅
The Crate trick is just Solid Snake in his Cardboard Box
Ok, now do one for Thaumatergy.
My personal favorite: Looney Toons a pursuer by causing a door or window shutter to fly open in their face.
That’s awesome 😂
I've had enemies in distant rooms with our melee PCs close doors to prevent us from shooting into the room. I've also used Thaumaturgy to reopen these doors. 😁
@@zacharylona Not bad. I take it your cleric had nothing better to do. But isn't the range only 30 feet?
Most of those really don't work unless you have subtle spell. I imagine playing a sorcerer in roleplay heavy campaign would be loads of fun like that.
Why don't they work without subtle spell? Surely they would still work, you would just have to gesture and speak the spell.
@@dracodominus2800 because a lot of them rely on the other person not knowing you cast a spell
@@AZDfox If I was the DM, I would just say roll for Sleight of Hand for Somatics and Stealth for Vocal to see if you can pull the spell off without anyone noticing.
@@AZDfox in crowded situation or of they're distracted by almost any means these will work, they only wouldn't work if the person was looking at you as you did it, a quick gesture behind your back and the mumblings of a crazy old man won't gather any attention in most places
Just be aware, by using these house rules, you're diminishing the power of the aforementioned Metamagic, which some players won't like.
Can you do one of theses for shape water?
My favorite use is to form a knife out of holy water (It will use improvised weapon rules be aware), then fight undead.
I have so many questions about what my DM might allow with shape water. Ice daggers? Still 1d4 but maybe a magic weapon now. If I'm carrying a gallon of water, I should have enough water to shape ice to any weapon except a great club. What about ice arrows? An ice shield. Do I need Tavern Brawler to be proficient with an ice rapier? Can I shape water that has been mixed with poison? Can I make a simple water elemental familiar with the animate option? Could it have a top hat and carry a tiny ice rapier too? How mad will the DM be when I drop 7000 lbs of ice on a shop that insulted me?
@@jacob_is_fineFirst a tip: if you want to do a bunch off ice weapons, I recommend taking the magic initiate feat for druid, and learning create or destroy water, shape water, and another cantrip of your choice (recommend frostbite if you want a water theme)
Answers to the best of my ability:
It would probably be a magic weapon with holy water, but other wise I would say no.
I believe you can use ice arrows and an ice shield with the improvised weapons rule. I do not know if the ice arrows deal less damage.
No, you do not need tavern brawler to be proficient in an ice rapier if you are already proficient with a normal rapier, but be warned in only does 1d4 damage, which is why I recommended dagger, which does that much already.
Water with Poisson depends on the DM, with my DM he said it will only move the water and the Poisson would stay stationary.
The animate does not mean become alive, it just means simple motions, for example you can shape it like a person and have it wave their hand.
You can have a top hat and tiny rapier, but they will both melt in one hour.
You can drop a 5x5 cube of ice on the shop that insulted you yes, I recommend you cast create water and set it as rain to make ice cubes fall from the sky.
Btw, a 5x5x5 foot cube of ice would either do these things:
-Improvised damage considering it similar falling rubble would deal 4d10 damage.
-Improvised damage considering it being crushed by a wall would deal 10d10 damage.
- Trap rules would say that the Ice Cube would have 13 AC and have 4d8 hit points (per damage).
In order to not be an improvised weapon, having a relevant proficiency would be an option - for example, smith's tools, since that's the proficiency normally used for weapon crafting, although an argument could be made for stoneworking tools since ice is a stone, or just for proficiency in the weapon you're making - similar to instrument proficiencies, proficiency in an instrument gives you proficiency to a performance check when playing it, to an investigation check when evaluating the history and value of one, etc.
@@lustforlike Great Idea!
Snap the tip of the ice inside the body to cast shape water again to really do damage
I managed to get three sharks off my party's tail by making the water further away from us smell like fresh blood, prestidigitation is a goddamn boon and I'll hear nothing less spoken of it
As far as I can tell, you can create "odd odour" - so not specified smell. Actually most of those ideas here are not valid with this cantrip if you reed into this spell deeply xD
@@creative666666555555 this is two months old so sorry for this late reply.
If you “read” into it more deeply, you should realize a lot of the effects you can do are vague on purpose. Like soiling an object. In which way is it soiled? Is it just wet, or is it covered in dirt?
Same goes for that first point, the key words being “such as”. Its giving examples not strict instructions.
In the end, it is up to the DM whether they will allow it or not.
You.. you do know that the spell has range of 10ft ? Damn im sorry to hear that you have the worst DM in the history of ever, if he allowed that.
@@_Lunaria
What are you, a Rules Lawyer?
@@OtakuAudioRedux I follow the rules of the game, yeah.
But what are you then ?
Bad player who doesnt know how their own spells work ? Illiterate ? Player who lies to their DM about how a spell / skill / feat works in order to break the rules ?
I mean those are your only 3 options really
Prestidigitation #102
My favorite.
I call it the “Devil’s Slingshot”
My halfling arcane trickster cast Prestidigitation to create an elastic band attached at each end on each of the party tiefling’s horns. He then used Mage Hand to launch a vial of Paralysis potion at an enemy.
It was funny, but our tiefling was not pleased.
So, your halfling invented elastic in the game equivalent of the Middle Ages. What's next, plutonium?
@@RichWoods23 Could have been a bow string, elastic is just a description of an item, rubber is elastic but a bow string is also elastic
@@SE-ih9pg A bow string is most certainly not elastic. Otherwise all bows would just be slingshots.
@@SE-ih9pg the string is not elastic, the wood is where the elasticity comes from. That is why bows are made of wood and not steel.
@@RichWoods23Are you talking about a setting, were robots, guns an airships exists? (Warforge, Artificer, Steel defender, Eldritch cannon, etc.)
'make dung smell and taste like chocolate, drop halfway through first bite'.
No, no, no. Drop it halfway through the *second* bite. Watch as they slowly realize that they've legitimately just eaten dung.
I'm really new to DND, I had no idea that this was so versatile
Welcome to dnd
In theory it is, but Prestidigitation has verbal and somatic components so you have to say audible magic words and make some sort of gesture to cast the spell. Most of these tricks don't pass muster if you remember that your targets will know you're casting a spell. The work around is the subtle spell metamagic, but that's Sorcerers only.
@@Unicronsupreme Not just sorcerers, a feat lets you do it too.
@@MalloonTarka that's true. I was trying to keep it simple for the new guy, but yes there is a meta magic feat as well.
Because it's not xD Those ideas are so far streatched interpretations of this spell's description that I don't even :P
Thaumaturgy and druidcraft next?
Thaumaturgy please!
Looking at all the effects of thaumaturgy, I’m completely convinced that the spell’s true purpose is to convince somebody that they’re being haunted.
Prestidigitation on a bard is the most useful thing I've ever used.
I like telling actual stories when I'm a bard. So I throw in prestidigitated stuff like "the dragon swooped from the sky and bellowed (a sound of a dragon erupts). He opened his mouth and breathed flame (create a flash followed by faint odor of burnt wood)." Throw in the dancing lights cantrip to sort of do stick figure esque animations, I love pulling fun detailed stories to sort of give the DM a good time too. Plus, maybe discuss with the DM and tell a story including a hint about an upcoming mystery or quest.
Your DM might even give you advantage on the performance check due to the extra special effects, if theyre good at their job.
As it takes a full action 6 seconds basically to cast each cantrip it would make your story very unsmooth with delays and obvious casting of a spell sadly mant times during the story.
@@jasonhowell6269 yeah, but that's why you need a good dm, who can look beyond just RAW and let you do fun stuff that doesn't really affect the game
@@ninnusridhar im not sure allowing a basic cantrip to do so much is about fun, imagine the other players with their cantrips, there is a reason for those limits. If a player cannot play within the limits of his/her spells and have fun thats not the DM's fault. I am all for players having a good time, but not by allowing them to just ignore rules that others cannot, I doubt you would be so forgiving if the fighter of the group at 1st level 'convinced' the DM to allow him an extra attack because he jumped off the right wall, etc. Sure its dramatic but it is beyond the capabilities of that level and such. Players can always gain experience and accomplish amazing things as they level up, but handing things to players because they think it would be cool is not the route. Also how would this work in a group setting, seems like it would take up a great deal of individual time to tell the story like your suggesting, time all spent on the one player, you, not on a group effort. I say try and be cool and stay in the rules without taking up so much indiviudal time, taking it from everyone else at the table.
@@jasonhowell6269Ok. I want you think real careful, is allowing a character to do damage the same as telling a story for fun. You do realise that unimportant social interactions are entirely different from important story events right?
And about the hogging the time bit, you would be right, but the other players enjoy it when i can entertain them for 5 minutes. I'm a good story teller, and I know a lot of good stories. The dm enjoys just watching social interactions where he doesn't need to intervention.
Not everything in dnd needs to be life or death battle. There is a lot of just fuckin around coz we wanna have fun. A good dm knows where to draw the line
@@ninnusridhar perhaps, but just because players do not complain doesnt mean they are not annoyed when valuable time is used for a single player. Im guessing that your story time isnt the only time you take for yourself, its just the one you mentioned, usually when a player is more than willing to do this in one way they do it in others. As for non-combat related things, yes they are less important but never underestimate the value to other players who may not get those same benifits, my guess is your DM has picked you as some sort of favorite and allows for this and other things. To prevent anyone from seeing you as getting favortism, as good DM just doesnt allow rules to be broken without a serious good 'group reason' not some let's make one player self endulge reason. If you think everyone loves your story time, then try DMing, if they ask you to keep doing that then maybe they actually enjoy your storytime, more than likely they just dont wanna say anything as your clearly 'buddies' with the DM.
I feel like a lot of these step on the toes of minor illusion. I'm sure some DMs would agree and not let some of these work exactly the way described. A lot of really creative ideas though! My arcane trickster really needs this one
Prestidigitation is basically a free swiss knife of a spell. You have to get close but so you have to with the swiss knife anyway.
I really love when you post videos like these, it's nice to get some cool and less specific things that I can mess around with
I'm getting whiplash from all the awesome background music
Reminds me of an old dragon magazine article on uses for a decanter of endless water. Great Video!
In a game I was running, the PCs witnessed a would-be assassin about to ambush an NPC, and I gave each player one turn to do something to stop him. The bard checked her spell descriptions, then looked at me with glee in her eyes and said, "I pee his pants."
Also remember:
It takes 1 Action to cast, so 6 seconds.
It's range is 10 feet.
And it requires Verbal and Somatic components, so your character has to make specific hand gestures and has to say specific things to make the cantrip do its thing.
That’s what subtle spell is for
1 Action is less then 6 seconds.
Plus, I thought the illusions where obvious. Most of these examples don't work for that reason.
@@BunniRabbi Where in the spell description does it say they're "obvious"?
@@IgnoreMeImWrong It's not in the spell description. It's in the components.
3:15 I much prefer changing the enemies clothes to white but leave a Comically large brown stain on the back of their pants.
Just to rub salt on the wound
And then you could conjure up the salt, though you'd probably want to have Mage Hand to rub it into the, er, wound.
Most of the sound-based ones are definitely the wheelhouse of Minor Illusion, not Prestidigitation. But otherwise this is a really nice video to get creative juices flowing!
I caught your Door Monster reference for 21. Well played.
Prestidigitation and Mending are my must have cantrips for EVERY character that I make.
Yes, they're fun and useful, but this is a roleplaying game so you should try not to make every character so similar.
Don’t forget that you need the subtle spell feat to do most of these, otherwise everyone will hear you casting.
You could whisper the vocal requirement without needing subtle spell (I think) so only your party members near you may hear you, also if you are casting this in the middle of your party group they can shelter the sounds and hand movements from everyone else in the area.
YES
Started a new campaign with this in the spell list of my character
One of my faves is
Using Presti. for subtitles.
Other uses I can think of.
'Painting' a mask without having to buy paint.
Camo colored clothes.
Lighting explosive arrows/molotov cocktails.
Coming up with a battle plan on any surface.
Quietly marking pressure plates/tripwires/traps.
Alter a musical performance with different notes.
Swap ale and pee.
Make a air puff toss glitter/sand/powder everywhere.
Cool clothes for the desert.
A literal 'hot' knife though butter.
Make utensils?
'sign' a contract for an hour.
I use prestidigitation on a cape so that a puff of wind makes it flow dramatically
Since I have watched this video, I gave prestigiditation to my character in a new campaign and I use it so many times that the DM just considers it a given that I'll use it to make food taste better or clean blood after a battle. I even used it snug out the lights in a small dungeon, those of our group that could see proceeded to massacre the guards there in total darkness.
Thanks for all the tips, I always thought it was useless but it is the best control I could have thought of
They are so pointless, but amazing at the same time!
This is what Prestidigitation's all about
There are so many really useful things too though. The ability to quench flames at a distance is a huge advantage against foes that don't have darkvision
@@donniejefferson9554 So nobody in 5e
@@7isAnOddNumber there's a lot of races that don't. Humans, firbolg, halfling, kalashtar
Only if you view D&D as a battle simulator with breaks. A lot of these examples were extremely consequential.
@@TAKLProductions Leonin have 60 ft darkvision
Hey can i find the "script" for this video (I'd like to have all the 101 uses written so i can mark down some xD) anywhere?
Here's my character sheet, and here's my To Do list.
That clean the poison off a weapon one just sounds so cool. You don't run into a lot of poison weapons but I'd love to whip that one out when an enemy pulls out the purple worm poison
The enemy still needs to be within 10 feet and you'd still need to use a full action to clean it, though.
I need to play D&D. It sounds really awesome!
You need a bit of creativity to make it work, but man, when you get creative... I once had players frame a potion seller to get attention off themselves by using one of his enlarge potions and pouring it down his beehive, leaving the vial there. Cue a swift escape from a swarm of angry bees the size of Gnomes or Halflings - i.e. about 2-3 feet long.
I could imagine a wizard tower with a DC20 lock, enchanted against the Knock spell, and the only key being one prestidigitated by the wizard every time he enters or leaves.
My bard is based on Mr Roarke from Fantasy Island. He uses Prestidigitation to clean his white suit after anything happens to dirty it.
This video is amazing and it got even better because of #79 the scene is from one of Terry Pratchett's books I believe it's Guards Guards.
A lot of the sneakier ones of these are particularly good with Subtle Spell if you're a sorcerer and your DM is a stickler for components (assuming you're okay burning a sorcery point on a cantrip)
I've already done some of these, but this really gets the creativity flowing. I can't wait to use this cantrip more.
Most of these auditory effects can't be done just with Prestidigitation. The auditory effects for this spell are limited to faint musical notes or like a whisper in someone ear. Minor illusion, another fun cantrip, covers volume ranging from a whisper all the way to a scream or a lions roar. When used together these two make for a lot of mayhem, especially for sneaky characters.
Nope. Nowhere in the description does it say that the sound should be faint. It specifically says "harmless sensory effect", which fits an extremely loud booming noise, since it doesn't harm anyone. The real advantage minor illusion has with regards to Prestidigitation is the duration. Whereas the duration of sounds made by Prestidigitation is instantaneous, the illusions made by minor illusion last up to 1 minute and can be somewhat controlled.
@@petrikillos Also range Minor Illusion has a better range. 10 ft isn't very far in DnD terms for Prestidigitation to do alot of what he says
Perfect spell to be 100% chaotic
I use I made for a gambler character would be to create whatever face you want on a blank playing card. Just keep the blank card up your sleeve, then play it with whatever suit or number you need at the time.
Or just change whatever card is in your hand: clean it or just print a new card over topof it
I've used about 87 of those uses, thanks for the rest.
Seriously, you are one of the best UA-cam channels out there. Thank you for all the insane inspiration.
Wow, thank you! I'll keep making stuff, working on some awesome things!
@@DnDShorts i actually have a recommendation for a vid! For my next DnD character I’m going with an armorer artificer, my dm is letting me homebrew a race so I created a Tiefling half Orc. The only things different than a normal half Orc is that he has resistance to fire damage, and instead of a +1 to con, it’s a +1 to intelligence. The important thing is he still has the savage attack feature when he crits, and the relentless endurance.
Here’s where it goes sideways. Being an armorer artificer, you can have any lost limb be replaced by your armor. So he’s a full on four limbed amputee. Me and my dm worked out that his left arm has the thrown property of a range of 10-60 feet. One of his infusions is the returning weapon, so when he throws his fist as an action, it comes back to him instantly. It is also a plus 1 weapon.
Guardian Armorers deal 1d8 thunder damage per punch. Nothing to impressive.... yet. With his savage attack he deals an extra of the damage die when he crits. So 3d8 when I crit at lvl3. I should mention faerie fire is an important spell for this build, which artificers get.
Next when I get to level 4 I’m taking the fighter initiate feat and going with the barehanded fighting style adding an additional d8 damage dice per strike. This now allows me to add not only my intelligence modifier and proficiency bonus to my punches attack and damage rolls, but my strength modifier as well. So that’s 5d8 for a crit plus a lot with proficiency bonus, int and str mods, and the plus 1 weapon for fist.
Then comes level 5s extra attack, and if I drop faerie fire and double crit, that’s 10d8 plus all those other things.
Now what my dm isn’t allowing me to do is take 2 levels of monk for levels 6-7 so I could get flurry of blows, but if he did my damage output at level 7 theoretically could be 20d8 plus all of my other modifiers and bonuses twice a day. I should mention I’m using standard array so my intelligence is a 16 and strength is a 14 (that’s with the +2 strength racial mod added). I can’t do the math off the top of my head.... but that’s a max damage of a lot.
And I have absorb elements as a reaction spell so add a few d6s into that as well. So if I get hit with fire damage, I have 3/4ths resistance to that if I use absorb elements.
If you can’t tell, I’m a big fan of your work and it helped inspire this crazy build. I hope that maybe this build works it’s way into one of your vids some day, because it’s such a crazy cool thing that you could legally do in dnd 5e that has an insane damage output for level 7 twice per day.
Generally speaking, this is a very creative video that makes me panic about the possibility that my players find it.
But also, you put in a redudancy, I will add more if I find some, as I'm not done with the video yet.
3 and 49 are exactly the same.
3 is "Snuff out a light source to sneak."
49 is "Snuff out a light source IN BATTLE to sneak."
So yeah, you just did the same thing twice for that one.
Ok I'm done. While there were a lot that served the same purpose, like a basic distraction to stop pursuers. None of them used the same method. Thus, they were not redudant.
So, aside from the single redundancy I mentioned above, amazing video. Amazingly terrifying that is because it can quickly result in a player centering everything they do around this little cantrip and I either have to find ways to counter it and make it feel less fun for them or have them derail a lot of settings with a cantrip.
So your video is awesome, but Prestidigitation is too powerful in my opinion.
Remember that Prestidigitation, like many other spells, has both verbal and somatic components, so anyone nearby can see and hear that a spell is being cast. Many of these ideas fail if a victim suspects a deception. Only a sorcerer with the subtle metamagic option can make use of such ideas, but by draining his limited resource of sorcery points.
Find ways to counter it or realize that the enemy can do it back and have your own fun.
@@redgen6485 Or anyone who has taken the Metamagic adept feat.
Why are you afraid that your players will find this?? I am feeding my players anything that has to do with creative magic and I love when they solve problems using their resources creatively. You don't (honest question!)?
Thanks for the great suggestions!
I can't help but notice tho that with a range of only 10ft people will see and hear you casting Prestidigitation, so it will be hard to pull off some of these "sneakily".
Use 101 is all about that, but yes it is a drawback always worth baring in mind!
@@DnDShorts indeed ahaha but it doesn't take away at all from the really high IQ uses yhat you've been suggesting xp definitely will try a lot of these
He did mention taking metamagic adept for subtle spell
@@LeveledRogue Aye, that he did. I might have jumped the gun with that comment.
@@ajgodinez And even if you don't have meta magic adept for subtle spell you could still ask the DM if you can roll a Sleight of Hand check and/or Stealth check to see if you can pull it off (both checks would cover the V,S parts) ... I am sure just about any DM would allow you to.
I honestly didn't realize how versatile this was.....Im going to give my dm a monster of a headache now, thanks man🤣👍
Best D&D channel on YT, period.
I'm honoured!
A fun use I had was lighting our rogue's arrows on fire, getting some extra fire damage along side the ridiculous amount of sneak damage
Another couple uses I had was accompanying melodies for when I - the bard - played songs, keep myself at a specific temperature, even in the frigid cold or the scorching heat as I'm cooling and heating up liquid, the blood in my body, and if needed too... The clothes I wear too
I feel like some of these ignore the 10ft range and components of prestidigitation. E.g. creating the sound of clashing in a nearby room.
Depends on your own personal location, so say you are right next to the wall of 1 room and the walls are only about 2 feet thick that is still within that 10 feet range.
@@morrigankasa570 No, your personal location doesnt matter. Cause the spell follows the same rules as all other spells (unless very specifically said otherwise) You need to see the spot where you are targeting your spell. And since you cannot see through that wall, you could only cast it on the wall, on your side. Here, directly from the PHB
"A Clear Path to the Target
To target something, you must have a clear path to it, so it can't be behind total cover. If you place an area of effect at a point that you can't see and an obstruction, such as a wall, is between you and that point, the point of origin comes into being on the near side of that obstruction. "
@@_Lunaria Interesting, I didn't remember the line of sight/obstruction thing.
@@_Lunaria "you cannot see through that wall"
Ghostly Gaze: Am I a joke to you?
@@kubomagico8853 I mean.. Yeah it is a joke. That feature does NOT remove the part of spell casting that says " If you place an area of effect at a point that you can't see --> and an obstruction, such as a wall
Hehe, so glad to see my art in youtube videos. Working on Valda's Spire of Secrets was pretty fun
Most of those wouldn't work without the Sorcerer's Subtle Spell as Prestidigitation needs verbal and somatic components.
Once when I was being attacked, it was a wild wolf and I didn't want to kill it so I could train it to be my guard "dog", I asked if I could make glitter to pocket sand the enemy's eyes. She said yes. I then asked if I can make it shoot out instead of just materialize in my hands. She described how every inch of the cart I was in was now covered in glitter.
And that was how Spif the War Wizard attained the "cantrip" Glitter Bomb.
After that I pulled a Soldier and shoveled it on the head until I knocked it out.
Years ago I created a wizard for a 3.5 Edition campaign. I spent most of my skill points on crafting and profession skills. When we reached 3rd level I took the Craft Wondrous Item feat, spent my saved up adventuring monies to purchase a small storefront, and retired from adventuring to run a business selling items enchanted with Prestidigitation: plates that keep food warm, tankards that keep beverages cold, clothing that cleans itself, lighters, pocket handwarmers, etc. I made a new character, and the wizard became the NPC that funded the party's adventures.
Honestly, I'm surprised more spellcasters don't use Prestidigitation and Mending to open laundromats.
One why would the wizard fund a party he is no longer in, and you are not offcially playing now, unless your drunk DM allows you to play 2 characters at the same time. Also what wizard or sorc would stop being an adventurer because he figurered out a way to be comfortable, thats nto what most adventurers do it for, plus no more XP so talk about zero ambition
@@jasonhowell6269 Why the hostility? The way my group plays our games affects you in no way whatsoever. Addressing your points in order:
*"why would the wizard fund a party he is no longer in"* Because the party is his friends and companions, and he wants to continue to help them how he can. They also get stuff for him. It's no different to when a nobleman or guild hires adventurers to do stuff for them, except in this case the wizard "hiring" them is also their buddy.
*"you are not offcially playing now"* As I said, that character became an NPC and I made a new one, so I was still in the game.
*"unless your drunk DM allows you to play 2 characters at the same time"* We actually did play two different campaigns, once with only three players and once with two, where we each controlled two characters to have a full party. It worked just fine.
*"what wizard or sorc would stop being an adventurer because he figurered out a way to be comfortable, thats nto what most adventurers do it for"* This wizard was adventuring _specifically_ to get the money and materials to open his shop. Opening his own business _was_ his ambition.
*"no more XP"* Going on adventures and killing monsters isn't the only way to get XP., though people who have only played more recent editions can be forgiven for thinking so since the rules only give XP listings for monsters and traps anymore. In older editions there were many ways to get XP; for example, in 2nd Edition AD&D, which my group learned D&D on in the mid-90s, characters got XP for completing adventures and also XP for different things according to their class: Fighters and Paladins got 1XP for each point of damage they dealt, Clerics and Priests got 1XP for each point of damage they healed, Thieves got 1XP per GP value of nonmagical treasure the party found, Wizards got the same but for magical treasure and _also_ for conducting magical research, etc. My wizard may not have been getting Adventurer XP anymore, but operating a business was still providing experience of a different kind.
@@arcticbanana66 one this is an open forum, my reply isnt hostil its to clearly show that you as player are using the DM to gain benefits. Any DM that allows a 'retired' character to continue to fund present characters isnt doing his job. Sorry in any semblance of real life people dont take thier business and fund thier friends hobbies. If you had a real life friend who owned a hobby store it's far more likely they would tell you they are running a business and can't just 'give' you books, and other things because you are their friend, and that its kinda rude to ask for free stuff, not really friends at that point. Most importantly it gives a clear advantage to the players for no reason. The game is set to allow the players to play with one toon for many reasons. Otherwise you see multiple toons doing just this, not acting in their own interests, even good charatcers are mostly acting to gain their own gold and xp, it's great when they can help others but clearly the main goal is self advancement etc, they would not work in a unimind effort to help you the player as roleplaying demands that each character thinks for themselves not for their player. This is 5th edition not the older editions so those options are gone, but even if they were allowed they wouldnt give anywhere near the xp that fighting monsters and adventuring does. I played 2nd edition the majority of my life and those rules helped with some xp but rarely produced anything like adventuring xp, so any character solely releying on those non-adventuring xp would know it's going to come far far slower, it's not a successful way to actively gain xp, so yes they are retiring to make a few gold coins. Also any character that has the intention to quit adventuring to open a shop doesnt have all that much in common with the active adventurers anyways, again certainly wouldnt 'give' them anything. It amazes me that you dont see how your retired toon giving goods or gold to the active players out of the kindness of his/her own heart isnt a cheap way to get free benefits, your DM should see it clearly. If he/she is sending you out for stuff he needs it should be to make profit, not be in your toons interest, just like most shop owners. If your DM wants to let you get along very well with their old companaion thats fine, but it's not yours anymore it is an NPC and should be played as such to prevent cheating, I point this out not to be hostile but to clearly point out to other inexperienced DMs and players this is just weak pandering to players and should be avoided in their games, its clearly too late for your gaming group, where this type of thing is allowed.
I never would have considered this spell until watching this. I'm very RP focused... This is awesome.
I've always found guidance, shape water, and mold earth more useful, and these are some great ideas! Depending on what the dm will let you get away with
Guidance is arguably the best spell in the game, and shape water is a personal favourite cantrip of mine! I was careful never to say Prestidigitation was the most powerful cantrip, because I do believe Guidance is better
@@DnDShorts We definitely get away with some utter nonsense using shape water, such as the time we transported a size huge fish using shape water to keep it alive on a cart
@@DnDShorts Question, Destroy water says you can destroy 10 gallons of water in an open container. People are 70% water. If i cut the top of your head are you now an open container? if so Destroy water will Mess you Up!
Cutting off the top of their head will also mess them up. 🤔😅
Still, imagine casting it in an open wound
One of my favourite uses is making a small bit of clay or wire, putting it in a lock to see the shape of the key, then creating the key to unlock whatever it is that needs to be unlocked
This, plus somebody else concentrating on silent image could make for a scary prank... I asked my dm if my sister and I could make a somewhat realistic dragon with this. He said yes. The barbarian ruined the illusion.
My favourite use of Prestidigitation is gunking up a lock so it can't even be opened with the key.
these are sadistic, genius, brilliant, and all out amazing ideas lmao
Here's another one for you. Using the soil area feature to put chalk or grit on the barbarian's hands before they enter a weightlifting contest. Love your channel, thanks!
Blind an enemy that’s wearing glasses by dirtying them
Yeah. That'll give you about three valid targets in the population of an entire medieval kingdom.
@@RichWoods23 Why not soil his eyes themselves 🤷♂️ good luck seeing when you're eyes are all dirt covered
I like the idea of casting the sigil of an enemy house on someone you want to get into trouble with the law, or a demonic thing in a city full of smite-happy Paladins.
Some of the uses are so potent it's kinda crazy how there's no resist roll or effective counterplay other than Counterspell or placing another illusion on top of the first.
I had a bard who would use it to "clean up" after some bard fun.
It's so useful for bard activities inswear.
"You know what? Fuck you." [un-creams your pie]
@@ZvelHaj noooooo, my dessert!
I used Prestidigitation to blind a boss with this reasoning (which my DM allowed):
1- I can create condiments for non living food
2- I can instantly soil a surface
Knowing this i charged with my Warlock towards the boss and pepper-sprayed him in the face, blinding him.
You can’t make a silver coin gold because gold pieces and silver pieces are different shapes
And different weights. Most merchants would have a scale on their counter, not just for this spell, but for shaved coins as well.
Major props for the Diskworld Image
One thing I often do is create thieves tools out of thin air to break out of jail, and if you must know the reason I'm in jail is because the paladin didn't pay for full plate at level 3 on his own though he doesn't need to know where the money came from.
I played a kobold in Pathfinder whose favorite spell was prestidigitation. She was fastidious and constantly used it to clean herself and her companions. She also used it to annoy a barkeeper with the sound of a fly buzzing around his head after he rudely informed her that they didn’t serve fine wine at the tavern.
Problem: Prestidigitation has verbal and somatic components, to do somethimg without others noticing you need subtle spell from sorcerers. Also trinkets disappear within 12 seconds, so weighted dice or fake coins wouldn't last long enough many times.
Flashing tokens, or playing dice games I'd recommend only doing with a trickster rogue who has good slight of hand, deception, stealth, and metamagic silent spell.
For example, playing a dice game. Pick up the legit dice, conjure the fake dice and throw 'em. They land so you win the bet, and you pick them up before they fade. If called out, you open your hand to let them inspect the legit dice you originally picked up.
My lord, this was epic. Level 20 suggestions.
Can we have one for thaumaturgy and druidcraft as well?
I now want to build a monk-arcane trickster rogue ninja and go absolutely ham with prestidigitation and darkness spells this is AWESOME
As a dm i wouldn t allow the sound created by prestidigitation to be that complex. You would need minor illusion for that.
Many of these seem beyond the scope of the spell. Lighting a candle or causing a gust of wind are no where near as complex as CREATING A WORKING COMPASS. The intricacy required is absurd. Look up Minor illusion and Forge Cleric's Channel Divinity. Some of these feel like they are straight up stealing from those 2 abilities.
But Prestidigitation is one of those spells that, "It works as long as you can convince your DM to allow it." And since its a spell without hard defined limits, you could argue these pretty easily.
@@Kugrox The thing is you are comparing 2 different effects of Prestidigitation. The working compass does not refer to the "harmless sensory effect" part of the spell like the other two, but to the "create a nonmagical trinket that can fit in your hand and lasts until the end of your next turn". So you can very much create a working compass that disappears in 12 seconds.
I use it to have a cup of tea whenever I so desire. A teacup is a nonmagical trinket that can fit in my hand, and changing the flavor and temperature of the water is well within it's bounds.
Wizard: chanting and waving hands around
Bush 10 feet away: rustles slightly
Guards: ah they must be in the bush!
If you're an artificier, you can use tools as arcane focuses. Also, prestidigitstion doesn't require material components. If you have your equipment taken away but you want to cast a spell, use prestidigitation to create a small tool to use as a focus. Then you can cast a spell that takes an action or bonus action to cast
We did an adventure where we were put into a chess match in progress on the losing side. Every time we did anything, they accused us of cheating. So when they checkmate us I had one trick left: I Prestidigitationed their black queen white.
those must have been the most incompetent chess judges/oponents, as even if you cast it subtly there is no way anyone who plays chess wouldnt notice it considering the nature of the game.
On the compass: I'd rule that it would only point to where the caster thinks is north, and not the actual north.
Still very useful, just in other ways
A lot of these really should fall under the Minor Illusion cantrip - it has a right to exist as well, after all.
This is a extreme abuse of prestidigitation, almost all of these would fly in my campaigns, primarily because it’s not really how the cantrip works.
so in curse of strahd my players got the vistani caravan that I had be the ones to bring them into Berovia, to let them see a map of the local area, they were allowed to see it and the person stepped away to deal with something for a minute, they used prestidigitation to copy a rough draft of the map onto a piece of paper they had with them and handed the map back. This was a trade caravan map so it had a lot more information and some notes on a few areas including location of some Vistani hang outs. I rolled and the Vistani Caravan owner was none the wiser.
Emergency toilet paper
Why not just use the Spell to clean up?
Can’t clean yourself sadly, as it only cleans objects!
@@DnDShorts but u only need one sheet.
I've done #74 in a game before, based on an imprint of a key made in a bar of soap. Worked a treat.
I think the ones that are about summoning items (coins, weapons, etc) aren’t feasible through Prestidigitation, but a Conjuration wizard can.
Edit: There’s a trinket that says “a gold coin minted in an unknown land”, so a coin that looks like your regular gp is definitely possible.
I am currently building a Citywatch Warforged Artificer (Armorer) named Detective Gizmo. I’m borrowing a handful of these and then some to act as part of his bizzare and niche “gizmos” that he always seems to have built into himself.
Ruin your accoytle by telling them of meta magic perks and subtle star before they are prepared and as a test...
I once used prestidigitation to create a cloud of smoke to block the vision of an enemy (only lasted 1 round but still handy, especially if you’re fighting only one opponent). During my very first ever game of DnD. I also used it to change the colour of my crowbar to look purple in order to trick a merchant into buying a purple crowbar (he only sold items that are purple). Then one of my companions were distracting the merchant (unintentionally) so I stole back my crowbar and changed it back to its original colour lol
A Gypsy variant to 74 is to produce a small key as you "pick it up from the floor" and show it to them, asking if it is theirs. Most will then show you exactly where they hide their keys. (I learned this trick from a man who revealed the thieving tricks he learned by those people, and wish to honor the source material.)
No racism there, no, none at all.
It's almost like someone has forgotten that people have been exchanging tricks ever since we invented language -- and possibly before.
@@RichWoods23I would like to amend my statement. What I said didn't come from racism, but from anecdotal evidence. I did not grow up understanding that they were from one culture, but a subsection of nomadic people from different cultures like Russia and Scandinavian countries, all who formed a group.
In the past year, I did discover about the Roma people (though admittedly it was hard to do so when faced with one sentance insults) but will still leave the term up in my comment as a nod to the one who taught me this trick; a man who was taken and raised by them before escaping.
Once had a char who used Prestidigitation to clean a pebble and make it taste like candy for the whole campaign. He was very happy. Always.
Prestidigitation is a great spell, but for a lot of these you'd actually need minor illusion
Frick, I wish I could like this twice. Lot's of ideas for my new Wizard.
I think some of these are confusing prestidigitation with minor illusion.
"the most powerful cantrip" brave words for someone within the massive eldritch blast range of 120 ft or 300 ft with eldritch spear
Chill Touch has the same 120 foot base range. It delivers a couple of fewer points max damage but makes up for it by shutting down the target's healing. It also manifests as a skeletal hand. It can play thumb war with the wizard's Mage Hand -- which has got to be worth more than hit points.
Color me impressed, you actually listed out 101 uses. No hyperbole. It's a lot of different things too: deception, stealth, utility, pranks, inventory replacement. Wow.